Russia has just officially appealed the ICAO ruling on the MH17 plane crash to the United Nations International Court of Justice (ICJ), arguing that the allegations against Russia are "unfounded" and stressing that the path to finding the truth is still very long.
On September 18, the Russian Foreign Ministry announced that it had filed a lawsuit with the ICJ, based on Article 84 of the International Civil Aviation Convention. The move is aimed at refuting a previous decision by the ICAO Council on allegations of involvement in the 2014 MH17 tragedy by Russia.
"We expect the International Court of Justice to demonstrate a fair and unbiased approach to this global case," the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
Russia stressed that, contrary to Resolution 2166 of the United Nations Security Council, the ICAO Council has not promoted a comprehensive, independent and objective investigation. Instead, the results were based largely on data from the Netherlands and Ukraine - two sides that Moscow considered to have "direct interests" in the incident.
The criminal and technical investigation led by the Joint Investigation Team (JIT) used "medicated evidence" that did not fully consider the information provided by Moscow, Russia said.
"Therefore, the Russian side has complained about the ICAO Council's decision in all aspects - from the authority, the application of legal regulations, the basis of reality to serious violations of procedures. This appeal does not necessarily mean that Russia acknowledges or acknowledges any conclusion of the ICAO Council, which was previously declared invalid by Moscow," the Russian Foreign Ministry affirmed.
Russian diplomats also reiterated that despite the tragedy of 11 years, "the journey to find the truth is still far away". Russia warned that the ICAO Council's lack of a final ruling would disappoint the Netherlands and Australia - countries that have asked for compensation from Russia - and predicted that Russia would continue to be defamed at the 42nd meeting of ICAO in Montreal, which opened on September 23.
On July 17, 2014, Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 departing from Amsterdam (Netherlands) to Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia) was shot down over Donetsk, eastern Ukraine, killing 298 people from 10 countries.
An international investigation team consisting of the Netherlands, Australia, Belgium, Malaysia and Ukraine has been set up to clarify the incident. In 2022, the Hague District Court (Netherlands) sentenced 3 suspects - including former Donetsk breakaway commander Igor Girkin - to life in prison. Another defendant was sentenced for lack of evidence.
However, Russia has repeatedly denied all allegations, saying that JIT's conclusions are baseless, ignoring Moscow's evidence, and are more political than legal.
By officially bringing ICAO to the International Court of Justice, Moscow is seeking to reverse the MH17 case file at the highest international legal level. Russia has said it will "search for the truth" based on the United Nations Charter and international legal norms, rather than the "discriminatory judgments" that the country accuses ICAO of relying on.
